The newest guessing game in publishing

As first reported by Publisher’s Lunch, UK uberagent Jonny Geller is crowing about a “DA VINCI CODE-style” manuscript written by an editor-turned-writer whose name is heretofore unknown. But Publishing News tries to guess:

AGENT JONNY GELLER at Curtis Brown remains coy over the identity of the editor who has submitted a Da Vinci Code-style thriller. There is speculation that it could be either Oliver Johnson at Random House, John Grisham’s editor, or Jon Wood at Orion. The former is already a published author, with three fantasy novels published by Orbit. He also worked very closely with Geoffrey Archer on the thriller The Burma Legacy, published by Century.

The only problem is that Geller can’t seem to decide if that book’s going to sell eventually or not:

“I’m very excited about this person as an author,” Geller told PN. “A very pacey Da Vinci Code-style thriller is in development and some people know about it already. But it may go in another direction next year when it will be sent out again. This writer also has several other ideas too.”

With all due to respect, what’s the point of creating buzz about a project if, um, it might never actually be completed and published? Oh, wait. To get people like me wondering who said editor really is. Gotcha.